The Prince of Irk
by Aleirbag Eiram
Summary: I don't believe my pentagon-hacking friend when he says there's an alien research facility near my house. However, I join him in a secret mission to investigate the supposed facility. That's where I meet Zakori, an Irken who is being held captive on earth. I soon learn that Zakori's survival may shape the future of not just the Irken empire, but the rest of the universe as well.
1. Introduction

**Disclaimer - Zim, Dib, the Tallest and Resisty do not belong to me. Lillian, Zakori, Stephan, Charlotte, Professor Jem and any other people who's names you do not recognize from the show are my property.**

* * *

_**Introduction...**_

_The Irken felt like his lungs were about to burst. Wheezing, he ran. He ran so fast, he almost flew across the uneven ground._

_But it didn't matter how fast he went, and he knew that. He was on foot._

_The men chasing him had machines._

_Still, that small bit of hope was kindled in the Irken's chest. So he ran, even though he understood that they were going to catch him._

_' Why?' he wondered. ' When did everything fall apart?'_

_A full moon shone down through the leaves of tall, withered trees. The Irken was having a hard time maneuvering through the woods, but they had been the best option._

_A tree root appeared out of nowhere, and the Irken found himself sprawled on his stomach, dirt and blood smeared across his chest and face. He made an exasperated noise and looked down at his tunic. Once beautiful and expensive, the scarlet cloth was shredded and stained with various bits of vegetation, blood and soil._

_Forcing himself to stagger to his feet, the Irken brushed off his body as best he could. Picking a loose twig from out of his P.A.K, he heard a shout from behind him._

_" Over there!" it said._

_Spooked, the Irken resumed sprinting, now well-aware of the shouting of men and the baying of dogs._

_' Why is this happening to me?' the Irken thought. ' I'm not cut out for this combat stuff. I'm a diplomat, for heaven's sake!'_

_' However...' the Irken continued bitterly. ' My overly paranoid mother did force me to take regular combat training before she even let me set foot in the 'Negotiation School.' Never though I'd say this, but... thanks mom...'_

_The Irken shuddered in the cool night air. He wished that he had at least managed to grab his cloak from his ship, but the men had appeared so suddenly that __he'd _barely had time to escape.

_Very suddenly, the tree line ended, and the startled Irken stumbled into a clearing. Regaining his senses, the Iken blinked up at the sky. The stars weren't as bright as he expected, probably due to light pollution._

_' Wait, light pollution? In the woods?'_

_The Irken lowered his gaze. A mile or so away, nestled in the valley of some small, plains-like hills was a little pool of shimmering, yellow lights._

_' A town?'_

_The Irken took a step back warily, unwilling to venture further. He had landed on this planet to study a curious signal that radiated strongly. The creatures here had surrounded his ship the minute he landed, forcing him to run away. They were a species completely unknown to Irken kind: tall, peached-skinned and surprisingly primitive, having a strange fuzz on the tops of their head and sometimes on their faces. They also possessed an alarmingly hostile attitude._

_The Irken frowned at his thoughts. He was a naturally forgiving and considerate person, and any sort of negative thinking against a race he had never met was going against his code._

_Still, the creatures terrified him. He didn't know why they wanted to hurt him, and he had no intention of finding out._

_The shouts behind the Irken intensified. Realizing that he had no choice,the Irken began to make his way towards the strange village._

_Something whizzed past his cheek, slicing the skin. Immediately, the Irken dropped into a defensive crouch._

_His antenna perked up when he realized that the sounds had stopped._

_' That's odd...' he thought. ' I could have sworn that-"_

_Something sharp dug into the Irken's thigh. With a screech, he tried to run, only to find that whatever had impaled him was attached to a wire that prevented his escape. Furious, he decided that his only choice was to fight._

_The creatures morphed out of the trees, one of whom was holding the end of the wire and the rest carrying what looked like weapons._

_With a warning hiss, the Irken unsheathed his P.A.K legs and rose up._

_' Maybe they can be reasoned with...' the Irken thought. ' It's worth a try...'_

_" I do not wish to harm you." he growled, giving the creatures his best glare. " Let me be, and we can both go our separate ways unscathed."_

_The creatures seemed startled at the P.A.k legs that he had just exposed, and even more surprised at his words._

_" It can talk!" one of the creatures said in awe._

_The Irken was confused._

_' Why would this be interesting?' he thought. ' Don't they know that they aren't the only common-tongue speakers in the universe? It's almost like they haven't seen a member of another intelligent race-'_

_A lump suddenly formed in the Irken's throat. He understood now that it was indeed the case, and he became incredibly fearful for his safety._

_He had learned from experience that ignorant races were the dangerous ones when confronted with something new or not understood._

_There was a sharp pain in his leg, and he looked down to see one of the creatures tugging at the wire harshly._

_The Irken responded by aiming a P.A.K leg at the wire and firing a single blue beam from the tip._

_The crowd of creatures below yelped and dove behind the trees. Many fired bolts in the Irken's direction, which he deflected with a shield._

_A bright light shone into his eyes, and the Irken blinked a few times to remove the spots from his vision. A noisy aircraft with spinning blades hovered above his head, shining the light directly at him._

_A door opened on the side and a creature looked out. It was larger then the others and was cloaked entirely in black. Before the Irken knew what was going on, the creature kept out of the craft and collided with him, dragging them both to the ground below._

_The air whooshed out of the Irken's lungs as his back met the grassy ground. He tried to sit up, but the large creature held him down with a knee pressed against the side of his face._

_From his mushed sight, the Irken saw a pair of black boots march steadily up to him. Next thing he knew, the large creature hauled him up and suspended him a few inches above the ground in a massive bear-hug._

_The Irken shook his head a few times and peered at the new creature in front of him. It was shorter then his current captor, and a lot thiner. It wore a long white coat and a black full- body suit underneath. A pair of goggles adorned the slick black fur on its head._

_Its eyes were colder then a glacier, and its smile held no warmth. For that, the creature scared the Irken much more then the monster crushing him._

_The thin creature put on a pair of black gloves and idly inspected the Irken's face._

_" Good work, Chris." said the creature. " A lovely specimen."_

_The man holding the Irken grunted._

_" Thank you Jem." he said. " It was pretty easy to snag once it was in the open."_

_Based on their voices and size, the Irken guessed that the creatures were both male._

_He also guessed that he was in a lot of danger._

_" Hm..." the thin creature said. " The alien has the facial structure of a child. I would guess... 14?"_

_The Irken couldn't help himself._

_" 16." he spat. " Now, if you would be so kind as to release me, I will not be forced to stab your companion in the face."_

_The creatures in the clearing gasped. The thin creature in front of the Irken simply smiled._

_" As, so the rumors are true..." he grinned. " You can talk."_

_He rubbed his chin thoughtfully._

_" Quite the __specimen indeed... this will boost human research a millennia ahead."_

_' Research?' the Irken thought. ' What-?'_

_" Chris?" the thin creature said. " I don't want this one running away."_

_" Right, Doctor."_

_The next thing the Irken knew, something sharp was jabbed into his neck._

_He tried to scream, but whatever chemical had been pumped into his system began to take its toll._

_" Stop..." he gurgled._

_The thin creature smiled._

_" Welcome to earth, alien."_

_The Irken managed a final gasp._

_And then cold sleep pressed onto his eyelids and forced him into __submission._


	2. School Morning

My friend Stephan says there's an Alien Research Facility near my house.

He also once said that he used his computer to hack into the Pentagon, so I didn't really believe him at first.

" It's true, Charlotte!" he claimed at school. " It's there! I know it is!"

I dealt with this for a while._ I'll humor him,_ I thought. _Where's the harm in that?_

I have to say though, my thoughts on his claim became mixed after the night I saw the lights in the woods.

The old forest was a mile or so away from my town, located in a shallow valley in between two rather large hills. The area around it consisted of mostly shrubs, so this one three-mile all around area of dense trees was an interesting spot.

A long time ago, when my parents had been children, a recycling factory opened up in the center of the woods. It remained open for a while, but by the time I was born, it had closed down due to a mechanical error.

Of course, Stephan says that they closed down because of increased alien activity in the area. The government secretly took over and pretended that the plant was closed, while they conducted lab experiments in a bunker buried underneath the old building.

'Bullshit' is what I usually say to him.

Nevertheless, something defiantly happened last night. Something big.

I thought I heard a helicopter, and there were bright lights going off through the trees. Voices were carried across the wind, too muted and soft for me to distinguish what they were saying.

Why were there lights? What did they mean?

All things turned confusing, and I tried to shut them out as well as I could.

The morning after the lights, I woke up, changed, ate breakfast and began the long walk to school. I lived in a small hilled community, where everyone knew each other and had no problems in sharing gossip and the such.

That's probably why everyone was talking about the woods by the time I got to my class.

I was a high schooler, fifteen, going on sixteen. My school was a large brick building, with a chain-link fence around it and a bell on top of a large tower in the front. It was a small school, with only three-hundred or so students in all four grades. Next door, just across the street was the Middle and Elementary schools.

Luckily, the little children didn't bother us much. Occasionally, one would run across the street, and an older senior would spend and hour trying to find out their class and grade.

That morning, the sky was a dull grey, signaling rain later on in the night. The school stood atop a large hill, and due to my largely over-weight backpack, I was panting and sweating by the time I reached my desired location.

Students were already streaming into the school by the time I arrived, the bell tolling in deep, rich tones.

With a groan, I set down my backpack for a minute and leaned against the fence.

" Damn, I hate Fridays..."

I heard a sound behind me and didn't even bother to turn around before I said: " You really need to work on you stealth, Stephan."

My friend dropped off the fence and sat down next to me.

" Damn Charlotte!" he complained. " How come you always hear me?"

I grinned at him. Stephan looked a lot like a baby cow. His thin velvet hair hung down to his ears, he had bright brown eyes and pale skin from sitting in front of a computer for most of the day. His tilted his head towards me as he bounced up and down in excitement.

" You saw them, right?" Stephan giggled. " Last night? Those lights in the forest, I told you I was right!"

I rolled my eyes.

" I don't think it was the government." I groaned. " Please..."

" But that old recycling plant!" Stephan protested. " The lights are on at night, but nobody works there anymore!"

" There must be someone taking care of the place." I said. " It's someone's property, you know?"

" But the lights! An alien crashed in the woods last night, and the men working at the plant captured it! I swear!"

" Where's your proof?" I asked.

Stephan turned bright red.

" I... don't have any." he said truthfully. " But, just think! If I could hack into the surveillance and security, I could create a hole in the system that would allow us to sneak inside and take a peek!"

" We?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

" Yeah. You're my partner in this! I don't know anyone else who has a black-belt in karate and who can sneak around virtually unnoticed!"

I smiled at Stephan's compliment.

" You know we could be arrested for trespassing, right?" I replied.

" To hell with that!" Stephan snorted. " I can just hack into the crime records and erase our names from the files. We'll walk of scotch-free!"

I had to chuckle.

You really believe that you hacked into the Pentagon, eh?"

" I can prove it to you. Just drop by my house over the weekend and I'll show you the files."

" The top secret ones that you say no one else should read?"

" Yeah... I've decided I can trust you."

" Trust me?" I laughed. " With stolen property?"

" Government property." Stephan corrected.

" Oh, come on!" I groaned, punching him in the arm. " Really?"

" I did too hack the Pentagon." Stephan pouted. " You don't have to act like a bitch."

" Hey! Watch it, you potty-mouth!" I yelped, playfully tweaking his nose. " I can slap you for that, right?"

" Yeah, I guess..." Stephan sighed. " That was pretty mean."

I gave him a sharp tap on the cheek. He responded by falling over dramatically and writhing around in mock pain.

" Ohhh! You've killed me! Oh, how could you, you beast?"

" Get up, drama queen." I said. " We're going to be late for class."

Stephan stood up, brushed grass form his shirt and offered me his hand.

" You open tonight?" he asked. " I could show you the files."

" My parents are leaving for the month." I replied. " The house will be empty."

" Seriously? You'll be alone for a month?"

" I have to check in with the neighbor every day, but yeah. I'm supposed to have friends over during the afternoons to keep myself out of trouble, so you coming over will actually be great."

" Well then..." Stephan added, his voice dropping to a whisper. " How 'bout you and I take a peek 'round the ol' _alien _factory, eh?"

I sighed.

" Dude, I'm not sure..."

" Oh, come on!" Stephan pleaded. " Just a look! Think about it, if there isn't an alien there and the factory is abandoned like you said, then no harm done, right?"

I hesitated.

" Right." I finally said. Stephan glowed.

" Well then, we'll prepare tomorrow and leave during the night, okay? It'll take me a moment to hack into the security."

" Stephan, I don't know about this..." I moaned. " If we get caught-"

" Oh, where's your sense of adventure? Live a little!"

As we walked into the school, I shouldered my bag and though about what had happened.

_Oh Stephan... _I thought. _I'm just afraid of living too much..._


End file.
